Rotary engine.



N. T. HANSON. ROTARY ENGINE. APPLIUATION FILED APR. 20, 1911.

1,086,595. Patented Feb. 10, 1914.

3 SHEETS SEBET 1.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH c0.. WASHINGTON. D. c.

N. T. HANSON.

ROTARY ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 20, 1911.

. 1 086 595 v Patented Feb. 10, 1914.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

l/i 27 M N. T. HANSON.

ROTARY ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED APR.20,1911.

1,086,595, Patented Feb. 10, 1914.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

35 Z/ 6 a v wivhi LFFED @EIAFFE NELS T. HANSON, 0F HAWARDEN, IOW'A.

ROTARY ENGINE.

reseees.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, NnLs T. HANSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hawarden, in the county of Sioux and State of Iowa, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Rotary Engines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a rotary, reversible steam engine of a turbine type, and the object of the invention is an engine of this kind which can be employed for the purpose of developing various horse-powers, thereby adapting the engine for either light or heavy use thereby making one engine serve the purpose of two, and at the same time save the loss which would result in putting an engine of considerable horsepower to do the work which a much lighter or smaller engine could do. For example, where certain machinery is to be run it might require an engine of only twelve or fifteen horse-power to drive the machinery, and at the same time there might be occa sions when other work would have to be performed which would require some twenty or twenty-five horse-power, and it would ordinarily be necessary to use either two separate engines or else employ the twenty-five horse-power engine for work which could be readily accomplished with one of fifteen.

My invention consists of the details of construction hereinafter described, pointed out in the claim and shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the engine. Fig. 2 is a top plan view. Fig. 3 is a vertical transverse section. Fig. 4 is a side elevation of one of the pistons. Fig. 5 is a plan view of the piston shown in side elevation in Fig, 4. Fig. 6 is a vertical section taken at right angles to the drive shaft, and showing in section a piston the reverse of the one shown in Figs. 4 and 5. Fig. 7 is a section on the line 7-7 of Fig. 6, illustrating in detail the exhaust. Fig. 8 is a section on the line 8-8 of Fig. 6.

In these drawings 1 represents a suitable base which is integral with cylinder heads 2, which heads form the front and back plates of the engine casing. This casing is further completed by a cylinder 3 provided with Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 20, 1911.

Patented Feb. 10, 1914.

Serial No. 622,320.

suitable flanges 4 which are bolted to the cylinder heads 2, and the cylinder 3 carries a centrally transverse partition 5 which divides the engine into two compartments, right and left. A driven shaft 6 passes through the cylinder heads and through the central partition and is journaled in suitable divided bearings 7 the lower boxing fitting in a suitable recess formed in a bracket 8 which supports the bearings, one of these brackets being carried by each cylinder head.

Arranged within the cylinder compartments and keyed to the shaft 6 are suitable rotating pistons 9, said pistons fitting snugly in said compartments and each piston carries a packing ring 10 of any kind which fits within a suitable annular groove 11 formed upon the inner face of the adjacent cylinder head. Each cylinder head also carries a packing ring 12 of any kind which is concentric with the ring 11 and which similarly fits in an annular groove 13 formed inside of the piston. It will be understood that the partition 5 is also considered and treated as a cylinder head, and the packing strips are arranged upon both faces of each piston as clearly shown in Fig. 3. Each piston is provided with tangential bores 14 which open upon the periphery of the piston and terminate in a solid inner end wall, thereby forming pockets, the mouths of which have a greater cross sectional area than the inner end portions of said pockets. It will also be understood from Fig. 5 that two sets of pockets are carried by each piston, the pockets of each set extending in the same direction but being staggered with re: spect to each other and as shown in Fig. 5 the mouths of one set of pockets slightly overlap those of the other. It will also be seen that around the periphery of the piston and separating the two sets of pockets I place a packing ring 15, and upon the periphery of the piston and upon opposite sides of said packing ring I place spring pressed dogs 16, which '[it in suitable transverse recesses 17 formed in the periphery of the piston, and which are lifted outwardly by means of V-shaped springs 18, the dogs fitting loosely in the recesses. These dogs form packing strips arranged at intervals transversely across the piston thereby pre venting steam from working around the periphery of the piston. In practice I prefer to place these dogs between every two pockets of each set, and I also stagger the dogs upon opposite sides of the packing ring 15.

It will be understood that the pockets formed upon one piston extend in a direction opposite to that of those of the other piston, and consequently the two pistons will tend to rotate the shaft 6 in opposite directions, and in order to provide for the driving of said shaft in either direction I provide means for admitting steam to either one of the two pistons, and it will be understood that under normal conditions only one of said pistons will be acted upon by steam pressure at a time.

To provide steam for the pistons I form upon the cylinder three suitable bosses or projections 19 which are provided with inlet ports 20, which ports open into transversely arranged recesses 21 formed in the inner circumferential face of a cylinder, and these recesses are of such a length as to communicate with both sets of pockets carried by a piston. As the pockets are staggered it will be obvious from Fig. 5 that as a pocket upon one side of the packing ring 15 passes from out of communication with one of the recesses a pocket upon the other side of the packing ring has come into communication with the same recesses. Two bosses are provided upon opposite sides of the cylinder for each piston, and the ports in these two bosses are at such an angle as to feed steam into the pockets, it will therefore be understood that the bosses containing the ports are communicating with the compartment upon one side of the partition 3 are oppositely arranged with respect to those communicating with the compartment upon the other side of the partition.

Steam is admitted to these ports from a common supply pipe 22 from which run branch pipes 23, and each pipe 23 supplies steam to both pistons upon one side of the cylinder, by means of a second branch pipe 24. Admission of steam to the ports from these pipes is controlled by suitable threaded valves 25 which work through the bosses at an angle to the ports, the ports having a diameter less than that of the pipes and also less than the intersecting valves. These valves are operated by means of suitable crank handles 26, and are shown in Fig. 6 in closed position. Two exhaust pipes 27 are provided in the lower portion of the cylinder for each side, said pipes communicating with transverse recesses 28, one of which is shown in detail in Fig. 7.

The operation of the engine is as follows: Assuming that the engine rotates from left to right, and that the work to be done requires the minimum horse-power, the power valve shown in Fig. 6 would be open, all of the other valves remaining closed. This would admit steam to the pockets of one piston only and from one port only. This will drive the piston from left to right, the steam filling the pockets and exhausting as the pockets reach the recesses 28 shown at the lower left hand portion of the casing, the piston making about three fourths of a revolution before exhausting. The other piston in the meantime receives no steam but turns with the shaft as an ordinary fly wheel. Should it then be desired to reverse the engine it is only necessary to close the valve and open the corresponding valve giving communication to the other piston, and the engine will then be rotated from right to left. If however it is desired not to reverse the engine but to increase its horse-power for heavier work both of the valves shown in Fig. 6 would be open and steam would be fed to the pockets through the upper and left hand port, and when these pockets after making a one-half rotation of the piston came into communication with the port in the lower right hand portion of the casing they would receive an additional supply of steam pressure superposed upon the steam already filling the pockets.

it will be noted that this construction is entirely different and the principle of operation is also entirely different from those turbines in which a series of pockets are successively filled with steam, and which exhaust between each port. This construction is also radically different from that type of engine in which a plurality of pocket-s receives steam at different periods of rotation of the piston. In my construction the pockets are first filled with steam from one port and if it is desired to increase the horse-power of the engine, an additional steam pressure is applied to the same pockets, by passing them while already filled with expanding steam under another port, thereby doubling the steam pressure, and thereby increasing the power of the engine.

If for any reason the engine should run wild, or in the case of an emergency such as an accident to the machinery, it is necessary to bring the engine to an immediate stop, a valve may be opened to throw steam upon the otherwise idle piston, and the pressure of steam upon both pistons at the same time will cause one to act as a brake upon the other, thus bringing the engine to a stand still.

What I claim is:

In a rotary engine comprising a cylindrical casing, having transverse recesses formed in its inner face, an exhaust pipe communicating with one of said recesses, means for admitting steam into the other recesses, and

a rotatable piston, said piston having a the other, both sets of pockets being adapted series of pockets opening on its periphery, to register with the recesses above menthe said pockets being divided into two sets, tioned. V the pockets of one set being ofiset With re- NELS T. HANSON.

5 spect to those of the other set and an annular Witnesses:

' packing ring carried by the piston and sepa- JOHN K. OFSTAD, rating the pockets of one set from those of J. E. ERICKSON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Yatenti, Washington, D. 0. 

